Save Our History - DVD

Save Our History - Gold Rush Ghost Towns (History Channel)

Amazon Price: $22.49 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: A&E Home Video Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $2.15

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

A Word of Warning 2 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

This DVD briefly mentions and shows just two ghost towns (Bodie, California and Garnet, Montana). It spends almost the entire video in showing how they are restoring log cabins in Montana and mining for gold in California and the process used for mining for gold. While these all may be interesting subjects, they are barely mentioning the ghost towns themselves. The length of the DVD is under an hour. They probably spent less than five minutes actually showing and telling about the ghost towns and only mention two. For the money being charged for this DVD, you might want to think twice before purchasing it.

Save Our History - Frontier Homes (History Channel)

Amazon Price: $24.95 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: A&E Home Video

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Interesting and Educational! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"Frontier Homes" covers four types of homes that sprang up in the new America. The first was the post and beam type homes built beginning in Plymouth, MA. in 1621. Large squared-off green-wood beams were placed at the corners, and then the frame was closed in with clapboards made by riving that split boards. Nails were brought over from England. Most of these homes had no foundation. Thatched roofs were the rule - the long grasses were tied together, and had demonstrated in Europe the ability to last for centuries. Walls were then sealed with wattle and daub. The homes were the size of today's modern bedroom, with no interior rooms; smoke rose from the fireplace and went out a hole left at the roof peak. Large 2-man saws were used to make planks.

The 1700s saw log cabins become the standard home in the Appalachian area; standard size was 18'X24'. The logs were not treated, but sat on a foundation of stones. Two days work, with help from neighbors, was required to build one of these. Chinking filled up the holes between logs, and this was augmented with daubing. The chimney was stone at the lower level, and wood covered with mud made up the rest of the chimney.

Great Plains residents built sod homes in the 1860s+ because there was little wood. Blocks of sod were cut from the earth and piled up for walls after being cut into two-foot lengths. Wooden frames were placed into the walls for windows and doors.

Adobe (sun-dried mud brick) made many homes in the South West U.S. The technique came from North Africa. A mixture of 70% sand, and the rest clay and some straw was used. The mixture dried for about two weeks, and the resulting bricks weighed 20-30 lbs. Mud plaster about 1/2 inch covered the bricks and roof. Floors were made of 6" adobe. Building one of these homes would take about one week, with help from neighbors. If maintained, the home would last centuries.

Save Our History - Gold Rush Ghost Towns (History Channel)

Amazon Price: List Price: By: The History Channel Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $7.96

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Features:

• 50 minutes
• Color and B&W
• Plays in DVD player or DVD-ROM

Editorial Review:

They stand sentinel in the deserts and mountains of the west, reminders of an age when riches were always just over the horizon, when the railroads brought civilization to previously unreachable destinations almost overnight, and when the promise of gold drew dreamers and schemers from the east in vast numbers. Every year, these long-abandoned ghost towns face new threats, and every year, irreplaceable facets of the past are lost forever. SAVE OUR HISTORY heads to Montana and Northern California to walk the streets of places like Bodie, California, where the ghosts of the gold rush are palpable in the dusty streets and decrepit buildings hastily thrown up over a century ago. Drawing on archival material, original footage and expert interviews, this captivating hour chronicles the rich past and uncertain future of these architectural time capsules.